Tuesday, July 26 (waking hours from 5am to 11pm)
Favorite moment of the day: Riding home from work, while I was stopped at a red light at Pier 40, this very lean, very good looking runner came out of the Pier 40 parking area headed uptown on the path. He simply wore skimpy running shorts. He ran by a group of women who were heading into the pier and they all whistled and told him how hot he was. He smiled big, politely thank them while running in place for a moment and then headed off for his run. It was all very cute (and he was darn hot!).
Speaking of the ride, I wanted to share a few scenes from it.
This is the intersection of 10th Street and Bleeker Street in the West Village. I rode this way once on a fluke because I wanted to get away from the wind along the river. Now I go this way all the time because this is simply a beautiful, residential street.
This was the unexpected scene when I left the office yesterday. This is my normal bike parking spot on 38th Street. The red bike often spends the afternoon with my bike (though I’ve never seen the rider). For the afternoon, the bikes were joined by a motorcycle for extra company. Somehow the hybrid, plus the fixie, plus the motorcycle struck me as interesting.
This is what the ride home can look like. This is 5th Avenue at 35th Street. It was bus city yesterday. Some days the buses are well spread out and not jostling for space with each other. Yesterday was one of the buses-everywhere days. Plus there’s the added hazard of the steel plates in the street. These are among the most dangerous things I encounter in the street because they often aren’t flush to the pavement. Plus there’s the added hazards ahead of the pedicab (these guys often don’t pay attention well) and the food cart that was traveling in the street.
I’ve been fascinated recently by two constructions scenes that are visible from the office.
They’ve been working on this water tank for a couple weeks now. They tore this down and have been rebuilding it. I don’t think I could work on such a small ledge as these guys do, and with no safety harnesses either. Fall one direction, you fall on the building’s roof…fall the other and you’re headed for the back alley.
Then there’s this… a building demolition going happening on 37th Street. We get the ariel view of this building being taken down floor by floor. It looks like they’ve taken two or three floors down based on the height you can see that it was from the building next door. This shot I like a lot because it shows the elevator shaft still on this floor as well as a couple of doorways.
My favorite item from the ongoing debt ceiling gridlock issue came from The Onion (this is actually from July 20, but I only saw it yesterday): “Congress Continues Debate Over Whether Or Not Nation Should Be Economically Ruined”
Slang is not my thing. One of the clients I work with routinely started slipping in “smh” into emails and IMs. I had no idea what that meant. Of course, I wasn’t going to just ask. Google, of course, has the answer to all things and I discovered through Urban Dictionary that it means “shake my head.”
I agree with Will’s post from yesterday that NYSC does suck! I use a different gym than he does, but same issue. It’s just not that clean. It feels like the night crew leaves a mess and since the daytime porters don’t seem to start work until 8, the early morning gym goers get towels every where, soap bottles not filled and other assorted things. It’s sad that NYSC has sunk so far in just a couple years.
It’s possible I might start writing for a hockey blog this fall… stay tuned to find out what happens.
It looks like Bicycle Built for Two is on its way up Dreamspinner’s Bestsellers List. I noticed last night it moved from #25 where I saw it Monday to #23.
Big inspiration over the past couple days from some people I do Braking the Cycle with. My Flying Goats captain, Chad, and Braking the Cycle training coordinator, Blake, both took on the Lake Placid Iron Man this past weekend. For this you must swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 and then do a marathon. Yes, I ride 3 days from Boston-to-New York, but the Iron Man is a different kind of endurance all together. I find these two very impressive and it pushes me to want to get even more physically in shape. I don’t think there’s an Iron Man in my future (the idea of running a marathon on my knees sounds horrific), but it certainly makes me want to excel and train well for the things I do take on.
Why was I up later than usual last night? “Chopped.” The competitors were fun. The baskets were crazy…who puts cough drops in a desert basket. It became worth staying somewhat awake for the end when the winner gave his $10,000 to the runner up who wanted to use the money to get back to her birthplace in Europe (I don’t remember where) to see her ill grandmother.
